France urges Iran, US to return to the international nuclear agreement

Iran has been accelerating breaches of the international nuclear deal and, earlier this month, started pressing ahead with plans to enrich uranium to 20 percent fissile strength at its underground Fordow nuclear plant. France has called upon both the US and Iran to return to the nuclear deal as soon as Joe Biden takes over the presidency in the US.

The Islamic Republic's breaches of the nuclear agreement since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018 (and subsequently imposed sanctions on Tehran) may complicate efforts by President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on 20 January, to rejoin the pact.

"The Trump administration chose what it called the maximum pressure campaign on Iran. The result was that this strategy only increased the risk and the threat," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France's Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

"This has to stop because Iran . . . is in the process of acquiring nuclear capacity."

The main aim of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was to extend the time Iran would need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb, if it so chose, to at least a year in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.

Fatwa

Western diplomats have said Iran's repeated breaches have already reduced the "breakout time" to well below a year.

Iran has repeatedly denied any intent to weaponise its nuclear programme.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, referring to a fatwa against nuclear weapons, says on his website that Iran does “do not need a nuclear weapon either in the present time or in the future. A nuclear weapon is a source of trouble for a country like ours.”

But in spite of these remarks, Europe remains skeptical.

With presidential elections in Iran due in June, Le Drian said it was urgent to "tell the Iranians that this is enough" and to bring Iran and the United States back into the accord.

Joe Biden has said he will return the United States to the deal if Iran resumes strict compliance with it. Iran says sanctions must be lifted before it reverses its nuclear breaches.

But Le Drian says that even if both sides were to return to the deal, it would not be enough.

"Tough discussions will be needed over ballistic proliferation and Iran's destabilisation of its neighbours in the region," Le Drian said.

'Absurd Nonsense'

Le Drian's remarks triggered angry reactions in Iran.

“Dear colleague: You kick-started your cabinet career with arms sales to Saudi war criminals. Avoid absurd nonsense about Iran,” Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Sunday.

And that's not all

While Iran claims it does not use its nuclear plans for the development of arms, it is quick accuse France of further developing its own sophisticated nuclear weapons, pointing at France's first deployment of the updated ASMPA air-launched nuclear cruise missile (missile Air-Sol Moyenne Portée Amélioré), developed by MBDA Missile Systems and Dassault last December. The missile is in service with the French Navy's Rafale M fighters.

Iranian MP Ahmad Azadikhah was quoted by the official news agency Mehr as saying that “world nations to stand against France's recent missile test,” which he says “is another measure to show strength to disrupt the security of the region and the world.”